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Since unveiling his plans to focus on immigration reform as an economic strategy in January, Gov. Rick Snyder has been moving quickly down that path.

Through an executive order last month, Snyder created the Office for New Americans and tapped Bing Goei to be its first director. He started the job Feb. 3.

Goei, 65, an immigrant whose family hails from Indonesia, worked most recently as CEO of Grand Rapids-based florist Eastern Floral. The family-owned business has six locations, all in western Michigan.

Besides the flower business, Goei created the International Center for Entrepreneurial Excellence, a business incubator for young, minority and female entrepreneurs in Grand Rapids. He has also dabbled in politics, running unsuccessfully as a Republican state House candidate in 2012.

Goei's salary is $135,000. He does not have any staff, but the plan is to add someone soon, according to the governor's office. In Snyder's current budget proposal, he is asking the Legislature for $385,000 to run the office.

Goei talked with Capitol Correspondent Chris Gautz about his new job and priorities in retaining talent in Michigan, and being an advocate for immigrants.

What will this office be able to do?

This office will be the chief adviser to the governor and to all state departments in matters regarding immigration issues and policies. It is also meant to be a coordinating venue for all the work that the state departments are doing. In the past, each department had pieces of the immigration issue.

The governor's expectation for this office is to make sure we look at every issue regarding immigration, both federal and state. Now we can't do anything with the federal, but we can certainly be an advocate. And this governor has always been a strong advocate for immigration reform. We want to make sure we as a state are doing things that do not create barriers for us to grow economically.

What are your priorities?

We know that by the year 2018, we have to have about 274,000 jobs in the STEM fields filled (based on a report by the Global Talent Retention Initiative). We know that we need that many, and that's why the governor said we need to find ways to bring in these talents because we don't have enough U.S.-born Michigan residents going to school for STEM degrees. The EB-2 visa program he is highlighting is certainly one way he wants to promote and utilize to fill those jobs.

He is also looking at the EB-5 investment program, and that's why he's asking the federal government to designate the state of Michigan as an EB-5 regional center. If given, we would be only the second state to be given that designation; the other one is Vermont. It would give us some flexibility in foreign investments coming into the state of Michigan.

The governor calls these opportunities a way to help Detroit regain its position as an economic source in the state, and to use these visa programs as way of repopulating the city of Detroit. He's encouraging the people that are going to get these jobs in Detroit to live in Detroit.

Will this office be more about advocacy at the federal level, or assisting immigrants already here with problems they are having?

We can certainly try and help people to move through the system as much as we can, but most of the time we are just a supporting agency for these types of cases.

How much will your office's ability to attract immigrants to the state be hampered by federal policies that limit the number of well-educated STEM graduates that can stay here?

I am pretty optimistic about the fact that we can do this. There are 40,000 EB-2 visas available. (Under the governor's proposal, one-quarter of those would be designated for such immigrants willing to live and work for five years in Detroit.)

We have to be proactive in identifying innovative ways to get these things done. (The governor) thinks we can do better in finding ways to bring these students and keep them here.

How much of your job will be education-related, since for many people when they hear "immigration reform," they have images in their head of the Texas border and illegal immigrants and not the type of immigration you are talking about?

It's going to take a lot of education, because, unfortunately, the national discussion is pretty negative about immigration. What I think we need to say is: The governor is looking at this as a way to grow our economy, to find innovative ways to bring new jobs to the state.

We also have studies that say for every STEM graduate, if they stay here, they will create 2.5 new jobs for American-born residents. If they start a business, they can't run the business by themselves. When that company grows, it needs additional help.

Immigration is an economic strategy. It is not a zero-sum game. It's not immigrants win and the U.S.-born people lose. We bring in new investment, we bring in new talents, we bring in new businesses and we also allow for existing businesses to have the type of talent needed for them to grow. It brings in many, many more opportunities for jobs for residents in the United States.

University of Michigan professor Ann Chih Lin recently criticized the governor's proposal, saying it was unrealistic to think the federal government would grant Michigan all of those visas. What was your response when you saw that?

You will always have naysayers. The thing is about this governor is he's thinking like an entrepreneur, and almost every entrepreneur doesn't look at what you can't do. The governor is going to look at what is possible to do. So the request is there. Will the federal government give us the full request? We hope so, but unless we ask, we will never know. So naysayers can say what they want, but we asked and we believe the ask is legitimate — and I think the ask is very innovative and one that can really help address some of the challenges we have in the city of Detroit.

Part of your role is also to lead the Global Michigan Initiative. What kind of feedback are you hearing from the business community and community foundations?

I have heard nothing but positive comments from all those sectors. They all understand the need for different ways of re-energizing our economy. My office is getting a lot of requests for more information. We are very excited about this, and I think the governor was very visionary. It's available to us; all we have to do is ask.

Are there other states you want to emulate in terms of policies or strategies, states with a good track record of viewing immigrants as assets?

I think Michigan is really at the forefront. We have had some conversations with (former New York City) Mayor Michael Bloomberg's organization in terms of his policy and vision. We certainly want to learn from the best, but this is pretty new territory.

I like that Gov. Snyder is looking at this as a very positive way of growing our economy, recognizing that we are in a global economy, and recognizing the talent pool is the world, not just where we are.